Stuff You Didn't Know About Death

[TexasRN]

Originally Posted by Neezar

Sometimes I cringe at what Hollywood shows but I have seen much worse in the hospital. I don't know if it is because a general audience couldn't handle what it really looks like, or maybe the folks generating it haven't seen it....or maybe it has more of an impact when you are standing beside it seeing it in real space and time.

But some people have to use humor (me), it helps to deal with it and do your job without freakin' out like a pansy ass. lol

When you're handed a half dead 2 year old in the ambulance bay that is covered in black soot by a paramedic and told, "We found this one in the yard, don't know where the rest of the family is...." you either laugh or cry to deal with it. We saved that baby that day then played some pretty nasty practical jokes on each other to lighten to mood. We did things like put apple juice in urine cups and drink it, squirt some allcare (hand foam) onto the ear piece of the phone at the desk and then call it from down the hall, switch the names on the food in the lounge, etc. So yeah, humor is a way to deal with the crap we see in healthcare. You don't have time to cry.


~Amy